>Stupid question:
>
>You are putting the bottom cover of the disk pack
>on top of the disk pack before you close the top,
>aren't you? The "lid closed" microswitch won't trip otherwise.
The only stupid question is the one you didn't ask.
And stupidity is in the eye of the beholder.
A.
< I don't care for replicas. Instead of building a replica why not try
< to make your own design from scratch? At least it would be original.
I'm likely one of the few that could build a TRS-80/altair/? clone and
use unused parts all of the correct age! My spares bin is that deep and
old. To me there is no point, I can find an original and bring it back to
life easier.
Allison
No, WE make the computer, specifically designed for education/appliance apps
and then ship it across the pond.
Tim D. Hotze
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, February 26, 1998 1:29 AM
Subject: Re: Photo of Smithsonian microcomputer exhibit
>At 08:45 PM 2/25/98 +0300, you wrote:
>>Well, I've had an idea for quite some time, and now's the best time yet to
>>pop it up... in many developing contries, resources are streesed out, and
>>many attempts to industrialize these contries are going underway. The
thing
>>is that in some areas, going to school's a new requirement, and that these
>>schools arn't up to specs. The idea for them going to schools is so that
>>they have better opertunities than their parents did (so that they could
say
>>do accounting instead of sweeping floors). Now, to me, that means having
at
>>least a little coputing experience. I want to design (with help!) a
>>computer that gives the most power at the lowest price. The shipping
>>computers to other contries idea is noble, but we need to go farther, and,
>
> Tim,
>
> It's a noble idea but before a country can manufacture their own computer
>they sould be able to manufacture the majority of the components for it
>otherwise they're nothing more than assembly line workers using imported
>parts. When you stop and consider all the stuff that goes into even the
>simplest computer (sheet metal, molded plastics, resistors, capacitors,
>ICs, transformers, circuit boards, special connectors, floppy drives, hard
>drives, etc etc etc) you realize the industrial scale that is needed for
>this sort of effort. I used to work in aerospace engineering and some of
>our foreign contracts called for a minimum percent of the components to be
>built in the country that was buying our systems. We made every effort to
>meet that requirement but I can tell you it's very hard to find companies
>capable of this level of technology outside of the US, England, Germany and
>Japan. For example, we had a contract with Canada and one of the parts we
>subcontracted to Canadian manufacturers was flexible circuit boards similar
>to those used in the hinge of laptops. NO Canadian manufacturer was able
>to make those parts despite their best efforts.
>
> PS I'm Canadian by birth so I don't want any flames about what Canada
>can and can't do.
>
> Joe
>
>
>>this can be fun. We could use the same idea, etc. if anyone's interested,
>>please contact me privately. I'm really interested in it now, but need
lots
>>of help.
>> Thanks,
>>
>>Tim D. Hotze
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Charles A. Davis <cad(a)gamewood.net>
>>To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
>><classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
>>Date: Wednesday, February 25, 1998 5:49 PM
>>Subject: Re: Photo of Smithsonian microcomputer exhibit
>>
>>
>>>Scott Walde wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > >Thinking out loud:
>>>> > >I wonder what the market would be for an Apple I replica?
>>>>
>>>> Also thinking out loud:
>>>> Maybe if we as collectors flood the market with Altair and IMSAI and
>>Apple
>>>> I replicas it would drive the price of the real things back down.
>>>
>>>Yeah, but!!!
>>>
>>>Can you picture the problems trying to document the lenieage of a
>>>'genuine' Altair, IMSAI, or Apple.
>>>
>>>Chuck
>>>
>>>--
>>>-----------------------------------------------------------
>>>He, who will not reason, is a bigot; William Drumond,
>>>he, who cannot, is a fool; Scottish writer
>>>and he, who dares not, is a slave. (1585-1649)
>>>While he that does, is a free man! Joseph P. 1955-
>>>-----------------------------------------------------------
>>> (be sure to correct the return address when using 'reply')
>>>Chuck Davis / Sutherlin Industries FAX # (804) 799-0940
>>>1973 Reeves Mill Road E-Mail -- cad(a)gamewood.net
>>>Sutherlin, Virginia 24594 Voice # (804) 799-5803
>>
>>
>
Hi all.
Thanks to the BBC people who have helped me so far in my quest to restore to
life my BBC-B.
I have some detailed descriptions of the problem, hopefully to help you help
me. Actually its kind of interesting, as I'm sure the problem can be
deduced without touching the hardware at all.
But first, I have fairly carefully made sure ALL socketed chips are firmly
pressed down. And, to be sure, I tried the obligatory half-inch-drop test.
More like a 3g WHAM actually. Nothing fixed, nothing further broken :) So,
here's a sequence of events and what happens...
Power on - BEEP
you see just a flashing cursor about 1/3 way down the screen
Interestingly, you seem to always see the cursor in the correct spot on
screen - this is kind of strange as it doesn't follow the problems evident
in the characters - I'd guess that the cursor is some sort of hardware
cursor rather than software, and applied independantly of video memory - am
I right?
So, you see a flashing cursor - I also guess that the top few lines above
the cursor are some sort of boot message for the machine. You don't see
anything but the cursor.
type (AAA, for example) and you see the cursor move horizontally. But no
characters.
If you power up again, and hit about 9 returns, you see a >
that is, the prompt. But, you also see it all over the top half of the
screen repeated every 64 character positions. I counted. The screen is
currently in 40 x 25.
type AAA and you see AAA beside every prompt on the screen (about 9, from
memory).
delete the AAA, back to the >
now type 12345678901234567890123 etc
you can type exactly 31 characters (32 with the prompt included) and then
you can't see what you're typing anymore.
Delete all that.
Hit Returns to the bottom of the screen. A prompt appears, and the bottom
of the screen is also filled with prompts every 64 characters.
now do the 1234567890 etc.
You can type 63 (64 with the prompt) and as you type, the lower screen fills
(ie: beside every prompt) with what you're typing. After 64, you've filled
the lower screen and can't see what you're typing anymore. Typing more
characters DOES NOT erase the characters under the cursor (ie: you're seeing
different video memory from where the data is being stored).
When lines scroll off the top of the screen, those lines appear again at the
bottom of the screen.
I did see some interesting random colours and corruption on the screen, but
only once.
now
type CLS
type 40 As
40 Bs
Cs, Ds, Es, Fs.
you get a beep (limit is 6 lines)
press return
all you see is the flashing cursor (screen is empty)
now
Gs
Hs
Is
Js... you type 8 Js, and suddenly you start seeing what you type another
32 Js
Ks .... you type 32, and the entire top of the screen is now filled with Js
and Ks. the next 8Ks are invisible.
Ls... BEEP (6 line limit)
Ms
Ns
Os
Ps
Qs
Rs.... BEEP
NONE of the above 6 lines appear onscreen
RETurn
> appears in bottom half of screen (7 of them, in the 64 spacing pattern)
type Ss.....
when you get to the last 8, they appear (with the >) beside the Ks where the
last 8 were unseen.
So, quite a puzzle.
64 is a magic number, implying to me that somewhere a 7th bit is misbehaving
on an address.
I'd appreciate any comments and insights on this pattern.
Where do I go from here?
Cheers
Andrew
<>> Processor. The 8080 CPU does I/O To/From the accumulator which is
<>
<>I beg to differ.
Last I checked, today the 8080 IO is from and to the accumulator.
<>All you have to do is to put the CPU into a wait state, tri-state the
<>bus buffers and directly drive the address, data and control lines from
<>hardware on the frontpanel controller. You can access memory or I/O port
<>that way.
<>
<In other words, make the front panel do a DMA access, either to memory or
<I/O port? That way it doesn't affect the CPU state at all, except the CP
<has to be running in order to handle the DMA grant.
Show me a simple mod that would make the Altair or IMSAI or their direct
decendants do it. I'd suggest looking at what they did do first as it
will limit your options.
As to what can be done with a clean sheet of paper I can give you the
following:
Good, Fast, Cheap: you may pick any two.
Allison
<
The Computer Journal used to carry this CD. Try at http://www.psyber.com/~tcj/
Bob
----------
From: Jason Brady[SMTP:jrbrady@mindspring.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 1998 5:15 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Walnut Creek CP/M CDROM Discontinued
Tried to order one today - Walnut Creek discontinued this product
a couple of weeks ago. Lousy timing, eh? Does anyone know of a
third party vendor that might have some available?
Thanks,
Jason Brady jrbrady(a)mindspring.com Seattle, WA
I have recently come into an Epson Equity LT 286 laptop, however I didn't
get an AC adapter with it. Does anyone out there have one they can part
with, or better yet, have the specs handy so I can hack on together myself?
Any help would be appreciated.
------------------------------------------------------------
__________________________________________Live from the GLRS
The Man From D.A.D
------------------------------------------------------------
Last night, I was mucking around eBay (don't ask me why, I'm so broke I
can't pay attention) and spotted an AirMedia "NewsCatcher Internet
Antenna!" with a starting bid of $5 and no bids. So I put in a bid of $5.
I'm not worried about whether or not I'm the high bidder when all is said
and done, but it did get me thinking.
I've got a Ricochet modem (Yeah!), there's this thing, I know there was
another PCMCIA card thing that did wireless connectivity... Probably
others I'm not aware of.
IIRC, one of the features of Alan Kay's (proposed) Dynabook was that
whereever you went, (school, office, library, etc.) the computer would be
aware of what resources were available at that facility and would be able
to access them wirelessly.
As I see it, we're going to get to a point somewhere down the line where
Alan Kay's idea will come true -- except that instead of just being able to
access local resources, you'll be able to access the 'net from just about
anywhere, wirelessly. This will all be built in to laptops.
So it occurs to me that these first, early attempts at wireless
connectivity are important milestones, and are worth collecting now (or in
the near future when they become affordable).
I guess, then, my question is, does anyone have any suggestions as to what
else may fall into this category? Feel free to e-mail me directly...
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
At 12:41 AM 2/22/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I defy _anybody_ to say that a "better" display would improve any
>Big Five Software arcade games as they ran on the 128x48 monochrome
>graphics of the TRS-80 1/3. And I defy anybody to find a better
I dunno if "eliminat" (Eliminator) was a Big Five game, but it was great.
I too, have yet to see much on anything newer that can beat it. (Okay,
well, maybe BallBlazer on the Atari.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
